It’s hard to pick up a newspaper or a magazine without reading something new and different about food.

Every report brings a unique way to prepare pears (now it’s poaching and caramelizing), cook eggs (can you say coddling?), apply turmeric (My opinion — put it on everything) or use capers (heavily, especially in a vinaigrette).

We are a nation of foodies and experimenters. Roasted parsnips and sweet potatoes with caper vinaigrette (from my new favorite cookbook, “Plenty”). Anything with orzo? Yes! What about the new Girl Scout cookie called Savannah Smiles, “crisp, zesty lemon wedge cookies dusted with powdered sugar”? How can you say no, even if Peanut Butter Patties, followed by Thin Mints, are your favorite?

OK, so we have to be careful of our weight. We walk, we swim, we go to the gym, we put one teaspoon of sugar in our coffee instead of two, we skip lunch every once in a while, we say no to seconds on desserts, we watch the fat content of every little bite.

And we have to take care of our teeth. We brush. We floss. We use mouthwash. We employ certain kinds of twisty toothpicks. Because we know that it matters what our teeth look like. We know the pain of tooth decay.

But this is where it gets tricky. This — the intersection between food, teeth and health — is where things get dicey. If we are so smart about how to take ordinary food and turn it into extraordinary dishes, if we are so vigilant about how to take care of our teeth (some of us go regularly to dental hygienists for cleaning, and, if we can really afford it, we pay big bucks to get dental implants or bridges or crowns), if we are so much smarter than anyone who came before us in the history of mankind (well, face it, that’s what we think) and if our medical system (trumpet roll) has made such giant leaps, then why were the teeth of our ancestors so much better than ours?

This may not be the most pressing report of the day — surely not as important as learning how to coddle eggs or discovering Savannah Smiles — but this is what a professor of earth and environmental sciences in Australia who studies ancient DNA has come up with.

This man, Alan Cooper, works at the University of Adelaide in Australia. For the past 17 years he and his team have been studying human teeth and bones that come from the Paleolithic age, some 2.6 millions years ago. And he is saying — steady yourself — their teeth and mouths were healthier than ours.

Check it out. He is studying prehistoric humans, people who didn’t have toothbrushes, who didn’t floss, who never heard of Listerine, who wouldn’t know a dental hygienist from a wooly mammoth. Their diet would include meat, seafood, eggs, nuts, vegetables and fruit. No cheese. No Triscuits. No pretzels. No rice. No granola bars.

For the study, Cooper and his fellow researchers extracted DNA from tartar (calcified dental plaque) of 34 prehistoric northern European human skeletons.

The first big change to teeth came when our ancestors moved from being hunters and gatherers (remember that chapter in elementary school?) to farmers. That’s when gum disease and cavities started popping up. That’s when “certain types of disease-causing bacteria that were particularly efficient at using carbohydrates started to win out over other types of ‘friendly’ bacteria in human mouths,” writes Cooper.

The next big change came during the Industrial Revolution with the addition of processed flour and sugar. That would include all kinds of pasta, rice, legumes and chips.

That’s when we started to move away from the “Paleo Diet” — fruits and vegetables. That’s another trendy thing, in case you haven’t heard about it. How to eat like our ancestors. How to stay away from tooth decay, heart attacks and strokes. The next time you pick up a magazine you’ll probably read about it.

I’m pretty sure the new Girl Scouts’ “Savannah Smiles” cookie would not be on that list.